PIANO

88 Keys; Fun for Everyone!If you’ve never played an instrument before, piano is always a great place to start since the piano keyboard is designed just like the musical staff, it makes learning to read music easy. All beginning piano students start with a traditional foundation in order to learn the basics of the instrument, including rhythms, note names, the musical alphabet, techniques, and dynamic and expression markings. This fundamental basis prepares the student to either continue musical training in classical piano or any other piano genre that the student might be interested in.

Piano is a wonderful instrument for learning musical concepts and students with a piano foundation will generally find other instruments easier to learn. We recommend children in the 4 - 7 age year range who exhibit an inclination towards the piano to begin in our piano program.

Students studying piano at the Joe Ferrante Music Academy are all trained on grand and vertical pianos. However, you do not need to have a grand or vertical piano at home to begin taking lessons. Students can start on a purchased or rented electric keyboard until a more intermediate level is attained. We sell electric keyboards, vertical, and grand pianos at the academy; visit our rent/ purchase page for more details.

Experienced and advanced students have the opportunity to pursue the piano genre of their choice. The academy offers specialist teachers in a variety of genres, such as classical, pop, rock, jazz, improv, and contemporary music as well as piano as an accompanist. Another option for experienced players is composition and songwriting. Students who would like to learn how to write their own music require a certain level of proficiency in sight reading, chord design, and melody creation. Please visit our songwriting and composition page to see more.

At the Joe Ferrante Music Academy, each lesson has three major components. The first segment is devoted to last week’s lesson assignment where the student gets a chance to demonstrate what they’ve worked on. The second component is time spent on technical development and music theory training. Students are taught how to read music, increasingly complex rhythms, note interval recognition, ear training, and chord construction.The third component is introducing the next assignment and teaching the student the important elements of their new song(s). Students are tested for their level of achievement twice a year, we have 10 levels of achievement, and are given the opportunity to perform in recitals from a beginning level to an advanced.